What does a therapist do?

I have been receiving emails from Singapore and even Malaysia and India, asking me about dance/movement therapy. I'm glad that people are showing more and more interest in it and even want to become one themselves.

A very interesting question was asked recently whether I do therapy with my family, loved ones and close friends. I realise that people are still very new to what therapy is and sometimes I feel that sometimes people are still afraid that a therapist will disclose what was going on in therapy. Here I would like to clarify.

Ethic regulation and boundary setting of the profession

Firstly, I separate my professional field and personal life, that is, drawing a line, setting a boundary. I don’t put on my therapy hat and play the role of a therapist in my private life. What I have shared in the notes is mainly to show how a process is like and how a therapy can be. I can listen and give my empathetic presence to a family member and/or a friend, but I don’t do therapy with them out of therapy setting. I don’t do therapy with my immediate family members and my spouse. If they need therapy, they have to seek another professional to do so. I do share about my process with my husband and sister, it is out of a sharing context so that they understand and know where I am at. They can support me if I am having a difficult time. That was during my training where I underwent a personal therapy.

If a closed friend needs a therapy, they have to engage me for a personal therapy, in a proper arranged time setting. I don’t mix up my personal life and professional life. Usually I will state that very clearly to anyone. Let say if that person happens to be my client, out of therapy setting, I don’t discuss what goes on in the therapy and I don’t talk about it. Unless the client himself/herself reveals that he/she is having therapy with me. I don’t disclose information to anyone. Whatever is in the therapy is strictly kept confidential between me and the client. Even in a group therapy, the same applies for everyone. If the client wants to talk about it out of therapy setting, I won’t do it but will gently say that we look at it in the therapy sessions. All these ethical rules are clearly mentioned in the intake itself before the actual therapy takes place.

How does a therapist work?

As a dance/movement therapist, I am consciously aware that I carry the culture from the angle of a dance/movement therapist. On top of that, my religion, my culture and experiences in my life have an influence and impact on my thinking and beliefs. Thus, I have certain bias in certain areas. However, with the awareness and constantly examination of myself through reflection on where I am coming from, what influences my thinking and beliefs help me during my work with my clients, I have to make sure that they don’t overspill and influence the process of my clients. I base my intervention from what the materials the clients bring in. Through personal therapy, the process allows a trainee to have a deeper understanding and insight to who we are, what bias we carry, what sort of beliefs we have, and what influences have impacted on us. That is why it is compulsory that we have supervision regularly. In fact, it has changed even the whole aspect of my own personal growth as a person, not just professionally.

Difference between workshops/sessions and therapy

Quite a number of participants confused the workshops with therapy. A workshop is not a therapy. Since my title is a therapist, they tend to think that the workshop/session is a therapy. It is not. The nature of my workshops allow the participants to develop an awareness of their body sensations, feelings and thoughts, a time and space to explore and to feel at the non-verbal movement level. I don’t do therapy in the workshops. It’s true that it’s inevitable that the feelings of certain issues would arise as one explores deeper and further into oneself. Therefore, they may want to consider taking that into a therapy if they feel the need for it. Even in authentic movement session, it is very deep and normally we will journal and reflect our own process further at home.

Dance therapy in itself is very rich and wide and each therapist has his/her own style of working. After our education, we often choose the kind of population we want to work with even though we are trained to work with all population. Some may choose to specialise in movement analysis whereas some choose to focus on mindfulness, for example. There is no right or wrong. A client chooses what he/she feels comfortable with and the chemistry between the therapist and the client is also important. For example, if a client doesn’t feel inclined to the style of a particular therapist, it is all right to choose another. For me, I would prefer that the client feels comfortable with me, if not, I will just recommend another colleague of mine instead. It does not hurt me at all. Or if another colleague is specialised in working with a specific problem, I will refer the client to my colleague. We work as a community, we don’t work alone. That’s why we have a body organisation who governs and supports our professional field. If a therapist only thinks about himself/herself, the professional field will die its natural death in the end.

Dance Therapy on NICU, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Not many dance movement therapists are working in this area in the health sectors with babies in NL, even with healthy babies unless in a private practice settings. More research and sharing are needed to be done to educate not only the other professionals but also people who are working with the babies including parents how to observe, interact and communicate with babies. Brigitta shared about her experiences in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit as a dance movement therapist with the babies.

http://bybrigitta.tumblr.com/post/1471497375/dance-therapy-on-nicu-neonatal-intensive-care-unit

The Differences between Childbirth Education, Pregnancy Yoga and Attuning to Body and Baby using Dance Movement Psychotherapeutic Approaches

Is there a difference?

I have attended a childbirth education course for my own knowledge and learning purposes and went through yoga sessions for a period of time in my younger days. I observed yoga sessions which my parents conducted. It came to my knowledge that there are pregnancy yoga classes available nowadays as well. I’m delighted that more and more awareness is being shared in the area of preparing for parenthood by professionals such as midwives, doula and even yoga pregnancy instructors. However, I have come to realize that they focus more on the anatomy of the body and providing support in preparation for the delivery. Don’t get me wrong. I am not suggesting that these classes are not beneficial. I would still strongly encourage every parent-to-be to attend childbirth education and pregnancy yoga classes. I find they are important and one of the ways to prepare for pre-, during and post- delivery. The instructors are trained in their expertise and I am in fact very impressed with their work. They also touch on breathing and relaxation techniques and preparing mothers to have a positive childbirth experience. The also stress on how fathers can support them during the delivery.

Aletha shared, “One does not become a parent at the birth of a baby, but rather at conception.’ As maternal emotions can influence babies before birth and besides, pregnancy itself can bring physical problems as well as powerful, unfamiliar emotions (Aletha, 2001).

However, I do come to recognise that issues from childhood and a mother’s own experiences at birth can be triggered off if these were traumatic. In classes like child birth education and yoga classes, therapy is not addressed. In order to do so, one has to be formally trained as a psychologist, psychotherapist or therapist. I believe in early intervention and prevention. With existing childbirth education and yoga pregnacy classes, I have reflected and pondered whether that would be sufficient. Questions like how I can, as a dance/movement therapist, support and help parents especially mothers to develop a keen sense of awareness towards self and their baby in their womb as they journey towards parenthood, along with the possibilities of some issues that may emerge. I observed and participanted in the course of my fieldwork with the pregnant mothers how the therapist worked with them. And I have also worked with some mothers-to-be. Pregnacy is a process and emotions can be evoked in mothers and even fathers. This is so even after the birth of the child.

Besides that, using dance/movement psychotherapeutic approaches and the kestenberg movement profile, the parents are given the opportunity to re-discover the movement patterns of babies, which differ a great deal from adults movement patterns (Kestenberg, 1980). The difference between this and other pregnancy classes is that parents are not only prepared for the birth process but also initial development of the relationship between parent and child (Kestenberg, 1980).

Kesterberg describes the results of this training process:

‘This training not only brought them into a type of communication with the fetus, but it taught them to consider the fetus as a partner, an idea which then pervaded their deliveries. They were aware of the fetal movement during labour and had a feeling of continuity fom the inside to the outside by observing the movement of the baby as soon as it was born. The expectation that one can recognise the baby by the way it had moved inside of the mother strengthened the feeling of belonging mothers develop after the initial estrangement from the infant. (1080, p.59). '

Mothers, therefore, will develop an intution and attunement towards the babies in their womb using fetal notation based on the kesternberg movement profile. In doing so, they also learn to listen to their own responses, feelings, body sensations in the process and to trust them. The uniqueness of the sessions is that they are not just grounds for learning, but also support groups being contained in a safe setting and space where mothers come to share. They may also work on current tissues brought in by the mothers who attend.

To conclude, I would encourage mothers to go for childbirth education and pregnancy yoga classes to prepare the body for a positive childbirth experience and to further enhance the attunement and awareness of self and towards your fetus. Attuning to body and baby using dance movement psychotherapeutic approaches sessions will provide that necessary support for mothers.

 

(Sessions on Embody Your Body and Baby are available now. Email dancetherapy@gmail.com for more details outline of the sessions and registration form.)
Article on Attuning to Body and baby using Dance/Movement Approaches can be found here.

References:
Loman, S. 1980. The Prenatal Project. Child development Research News, 2(1).

Loman, S. 1992. Attuning to the Fetus and the Young Child: Approaches from the Dance/Movement Therapy. Keene, New Hamspire: Antioch New England Graduate School.

Solter, A, J. 2001. Aware Baby, revised edition. Goleta, California: Shining Star Press.

*Note: Some issues that surface may need a personal individual therapy beside a group session.*